Food on the Edge.
Last October I had the privilege of going to a symposium of chefs that is one of the biggest in the world. With roughly 40 Michilin stars walking around, shaking hands and spinning yarns about our trade and our responsabillity to our people. As restaurateurs we are responsible for bringing people’s attention to the right or wrong things to eat.
At Food on the Edge some of the brightest minds on the planet educated us on issues of mental health, sustainability and the joy of friendship in hospitality. With the introduction of social media it has made it easier to share stories and aid each other with issues in the trade. Also passing on local suppliers information and meeting with some of the big names in Ireland. My mind had been opened up buy two speakers especially, Anna Haugh blew me away with stories of bullying that brought tears to my eyes and James Viles who’s philosophy is still Hunter Gatherer, if you ain’t willing to slit it’s throat then you shouldn’t be eating it to begin with.
Now I’m going to speak a bit about J.P. McMahon, an Irish Michilin star chef (Anier in Galway city) that is so passionate about being Irish it’s not funny. His belief in humanity is infectious. His desire seems to be that we in the trade raise the bar on the impact chefs have on what we eat and more importantly the FACT that 50% of the world’s food is being dumped yet there is starvation on the planet. Have you ever gone to the shop to buy something and you see there’s a two for one special on for it so you buy it? You only went in for one and came out with two. Generally the second one is going in the bin so I guess there’s your 50%.
Food on the Edge is a celebrcelebration of culture, food culture and let’s face it, from birth to death every occasion revolves around food. So I wonder why we struggle to combat food that really isn’t healthy. Is it convenience, education or what? Who is responsible? Parents, teachers, politicians or people that have a love for food? To understand what I mean you’d have to hear what I’ve heard for example there are butcher’s around here selling upwards on twelve thousand foreign chicken breast A WEEK. Come on we are surrounded by fields and people, surely we can do better then what we are doing. The Amazon rain forest is being depleted by agriculture. Chopping down trees to plant soya bean to grow cattle. The Amazon is almost gone so the whole we need oxagyn to breath thing really isn’t hitting home. What do you think we can do to make things better, because we are failing miserably on this one which is our own basic existence and I would like to make the point while you read this, that saying I can’t change anything is the defeated attitude. If we don’t change then the people that have a self sustaining society in play are on the winning team but we have to remember that those people are probably the organisers of the whole downfall of the food culture. We at Croí will be attending Food on the Edge again this year, ready to meet some big name in food and to see how J.P’s action/reaction plan is going. My advise to those who care is simply spend a little more if necessary, I understand things are tight but the more you buy the cheap stuff the tighter things will get in the future. Buy from Holland, Spain, Brazil, China etc. etc. then say goodbye to OUR money because it’s now gone abroad. Please support local, please support your neighbour and please teach the kids how to eat right…..
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